PSALM XXIII. I.
The Twenty-third Psalm is one of the sweetest songs in the inspired Psalter, and has been justly admired for the chaste and tender beauty of its poetry as well as for the bright and lively faith of its piety. The Psalm in its metrical form is well known in almost every clime, and is one of the first spiritual songs that the child in Scottish households learns at its mother’s knee. It is to be feared, however, that multitudes, who are constantly singing this Psalm, never get beyond the natural figures of speech in which it is couched, and never penetrate into its real spiritual meaning, while it is equally certain that many who appropriate to themselves with ease the language of assured faith and confidence that runs through the Psalm, were never taught the same by the Spirit of the living God. It is not, indeed, at every time that even the true Christian can sing this Psalm for himself. Its comforts are so rich and its faith is so unwavering that the trembling child of God may often feel that the Psalm is entirely beyond him, and that it expresses rather an elevation of soul that he would fain attain unto, than such as he can honestly claim as his own. Unbelief may also be bold enough to suggest that the experience is too high to be attained, but this evil thought must be resisted, for this Psalm, as surely as the others, was designed as a well of faith and comfort for the benefit of the weak as well as the strong of Christ’s flock to the end of time. The humblest believer may at times, by divine grace, join “the man after God’s own heart” in his loftiest songs.
It is not our intention on the present occasion to handle the whole of this Psalm in detail, but simply to enlarge a little on the opening verse with some general reference to what follows. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” How simple are these words, and yet how rich and precious are the thoughts that they express! The soul that can appropriate them in the exercise of a living faith is made up for eternity.
The first thing that we observe is that the Psalmist here speaks of Jehovah as his “shepherd.” While the Lord might direct any of his inspired servants to the use of this appropriate comparison, there appears a peculiar fitness in David’s employment of it. He was a shepherd of his father’s flocks in the days of his youth, and knew by personal experience all the careful activities of a shepherd in relation to the natural sheep. But now the scene is changed; he is himself the sheep, and the Lord Jehovah is his Shepherd. And he has evidently found in the spiritual sphere that he had all the needs of a silly, helpless sheep, while the Lord had all the provision of a rich and gracious Shepherd.
The underlying thought of this Psalm suggests the profoundest need and dependence on the part of God’s people. Here are depths as well as heights—the deepest depths of spiritual need as well as the highest heights of faith and confidence toward God. This is not in any sense a song of self-sufficiency—it is the song of “the poor man” who has been made rich in spiritual blessings, and who, having nothing in himself, possesses all things in Christ.
The Psalmist came to know the Lord as his shepherd in the depths of his first spiritual experience. He had found himself a poor lost sheep in a horrible pit and among the miry clay, sinking down to destruction, and utterly unable to recover himself from the imminent danger to which he was exposed. He cried, and the good Shepherd, who was in search of the lost sheep, found him, and took him out of the dreadful pit, set his feet upon a rock, established his goings, and put a new song in his mouth, even praise to the Lord. And it is in this lost condition the Shepherd of Israel finds all His people under the New Dispensation as well as the Old. They do not all pass through the same depths of spiritual anguish, but they are all made to see that they had destroyed themselves by sin, and that they are now debtors for salvation to the grace and loving kindness of the good Shepherd who goeth after “that which is lost, until he find it.”
But it was not alone in the time of first deliverance that the Psalmist felt he had needs which none but the Divine Shepherd could supply. He is still dependent—never more consciously dependent than now. Though he was a man of great natural gifts and acquirements, he did not rely upon these for the maintenance of the life of faith, or the walk of godliness, in the discharge of the duties of his high vocation. He depends on God alone, and his needs are many. He feels himself still a dark, ignorant creature, who needs guidance; a hungry, thirsty soul that must get provision from Zion’s “green pastures” and “still waters”; a wanderer ready to go astray and often requiring restoration; and a pilgrim, trembling and fearful, who, in view of dark valleys of trial and temptation, needs comfort and courage, until he reach the house of everlasting rest at last. And surely if a man of such remarkable attainments as he, has such real and felt necessities as these, need we wonder that the humbler sheep of Christ find themselves in a similar case? Their spiritual needs are many and great, and they must live in entire dependence upon their great Shepherd.
Let it be carefully noted, then, that the relation here brought before us of the Lord to His people teaches a truth that is apt to be forgotten, the truth of their profound spiritual necessities all through their earthly pilgrimage, and of their absolute dependence upon Him as the fountain of all good.
We now pass on to observe the fulness of supply that is presented in the fact that the Lord is the “shepherd” of His people. It may suitably concentrate our thoughts on this blessed truth to think of the Lord here as the Son of God, the second person of the glorious Godhead, to whom the title “shepherd” is given in a special way in the Scriptures. He said Himself in the days of His flesh, “I am the good shepherd,” and spoke of the children of God as His sheep. As the mediator of the new covenant, He is the shepherd unto whom the Father has committed the work of redeeming and saving lost sinners of Adam’s race, and He shall yet present all those who were given Him, in safety and without spot, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. The Lord Jesus, in His pre-incarnate state, was David’s shepherd, as surely as He is the Shepherd of poor sinners since He appeared in the flesh. David also saw the day of His incarnation and redeeming work afar off, and, like Abraham, was glad.
It is the office of a shepherd to guide, to feed, and to protect his flock, and these three things the Lord Jesus performs on behalf of all His sheep. He is their guide. They are ignorant and foolish, and He gives His word as a light to their feet and a lamp to their path. It is their privilege to walk in the paths of righteousness He has marked out, and all their thoughts, desires, and ways are to be regulated by a regard to His revealed will. Not the wisdom of men or angels, but the wisdom of Christ is their true guiding star in the things of God, or in regard to the way to the heavenly country. He is their guide from darkness to light, from distress to peace, and sometimes from peace to conflict. He is the provider of His sheep. He supplies them with heavenly food, and gives them meat to eat that the world knows not of. He leads them to the green pastures of His Word, and beside the still waters of His Spirit. He speaks of Himself as the living bread which came down from heaven, and He has provided abundant food for the mouth of faith in His incarnation, obedience, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension to glory. “Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, there is no life in you.” It is by a believing contemplation of these blessed mysteries that the souls of God’s people are nourished, strengthened and sanctified, and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. He is also their protector. This glorious Shepherd already protected His poor guilty sheep from the stroke of the sword of justice. He endured the full weight of the stroke Himself, and died in their room and stead that they might be saved from eternal death, and he now protects them from every other foe to which they are exposed. Sometimes, in His mysterious wisdom, He allows their enemies to secure a triumph, but it is only temporary, and He shall yet make His people more than conquerors over sin, Satan, death, hell, and all their foes. He will carry them safely through every danger until they enter at last the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. The Shepherd has made complete provision for all the need of those who put their trust in Him.
The second thing we note in the verse before us is the Psalmist’s confidence, in view of the excellency of his Shepherd, as expressed in the words “I shall not want.” We have already unfolded the grounds of this confidence, and shall add but little. The Psalmist felt, no doubt, that if he were left to created resources he might soon come to want. Earthly riches often take wings and flee away, and the well of received grace is soon dried up by the power of sin and carnality. He felt that he required an infinite fountain of blessing, and, being assured that the Lord was his Shepherd, he did not fear that he would lack any good thing. He believed the Shepherd’s riches were boundless, and that His love and faithfulness were pledged for the bestowal of these treasures upon every poor soul that He had rescued from the jaws of the destroyer. And truly we may add that as long as this glorious Shepherd has, His sheep shall never want, and that is, for ever and ever. He may not give them all they would like; and He may try them in various ways by losses and crosses; but He shall not withhold anything that His infinite wisdom sees good for them. They shall not want what is really necessary for body or soul, though they may be kept sometimes long waiting for an answer to their petitions. “None perish that Him trust.” At other times they may get more than they asked for, or thought of, and be constrained to exclaim, “My cup runneth over.”
The question should come home to each of our readers—”Is the Lord my Shepherd, or am I still pursuing my own way on the mountains of vanity?” We may be solemnly assured of this, that, if Jehovah is not our shepherd, the devil is still our master, and if we continue in his service to death, he will carry us away to eternal destruction. Christ, as the Shepherd of souls, still addresses us in the gospel, and declares His willingness to save the very chief of sinners who comes unto Him. And if any of our readers answer that they cannot come of themselves, which is also a solemn truth, we have to state that the arm of this Shepherd is long enough to reach them in the deepest pit of misery on this side of hell. He is mighty to save—able to save to the very uttermost. See that you cry to Him, and wait upon Him, whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save, and whose ear is not heavy that it cannot hear. “They that wait for him shall not be put to shame.” And let every doubting soul that has reason to think he was enabled, in a day of mercy, to embrace Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour, seek diligently at a throne of grace a well-grounded assurance of his personal interest in “the great Shepherd of the sheep,” who loves and keeps even to the end.